Heavy Hearted Words
by Sokorra Lewis
Summary: Phillipa Rout finds herself in love with the herald, a man not totally unfamiliar to her. Complete


A/N: I started writing this many moons ago and frankly I'm not completely satisfied with it. However I got to a point where I felt it was finished as much as any of my stories can be considered finished. There are two things to note here.

1. I started to write this after seeing the regular version of the movie on VHS. I didn't see the deleted scene with Chaucer's wife till ¾ of the story was done and Phillipa is essentially the person in that scene. Well historically she's the same. Phillipa de Rout is a real person and Chaucer's wife. I did some research for this little fic.

2. I quote from the Canterbury tales at the end. It comes from the Miller's Tale and while I haven't actually read the tales it sounded romantic enough alone. It's line 501 in the Modern Translation. I had links here but apparently the uploud distroyed them somehow.

I hope you enjoy this.

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Phillipa Rout was actually an average girl, despite being the lady-in-waiting to the Princess of Wales. She had been born into a middle-class family and educated at home, and then had found favor in eyes of the king. He had found her the perfect companion for his young daughter-in-law.

She was actually quite pretty in the eyes of the court, although not to herself. Her brilliant green eyes were always filled with happiness, and she had beautiful long golden blonde hair that had attracted many a suitor. She also had a mind that could stimulate another, instead of being a trophy to be hanged.

At the moment she sat in a chair in the high part of the stands, only slightly lower then her lady, but bored non-the-less. Adhamar was again boasting of how he brought down the great and mighty Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein. Frankly she found him annoying. She smiled as she thought of the Prince's plans for the morning. She couldn't wait to see Adhamar's face as he realized that not only had he not brought down his valiant opponent; he was now a commoner, knighted.

This meant that all the people would be cheering him on.

She watched as Prince Edward and his wife, the Princess Anne walked up to their seats. She stood and bowed to them as they passed and sat down. Anne smiled down on her close companion. Today was going to a good day. Neither Anne nor Phillipa had ever liked Adhamar, and were as fond of William Thatcher as Edward.

"Has Sir Thatcher agreed to fight Adhamar again, my lord?" She asked Edward.

"Yes, he will." Edward smiled at the mention of his new friend. "Ah, look. There is his herald and one of his squires. He must be here already." Phillipa looked over to where Edward was pointing. Her heart stopped when her green eyes met a pair of crystal blue ones.

Geoffrey Chaucer. That man had been in her life at various points her whole life. She could remember when she was very young going to her cousin John of Gout's home in the country.

At that time he had been a page, only 14 years old. Granted at the time he seemed adult to her seven year old mind. Her cousin spoke highly of him and she often would sneak around following him, to see what was so special about him. She found nothing unusual, except that he had a taste for the satire and sarcasm.

She hadn't seen him again after he joined the king's forces at 15 until the tournaments. She had been in disguise, as had Anne and Edward, hoping to participate in the joust. To everyone she was just Cat, the personal maid to the wife of Sir Thomas Corwell. He had given that amazing introduction that day, which had made them all smile. They had chatted that night while the banquet went on, discussing various topics. It was interesting to see how his mind worked, and she finally saw what was different about him. He had the wildest imagination she had ever seen. Unfortunately it was that night she had fallen in love with him. She turned away from his gaze, not wanting to think anymore about him

She clapped with the rest of the audience as Adhamar flew from his horse. She smiled at the prince as he kissed his wife in celebration of Sir William Thatcher's victory and at Lady Jocelyn as she rushed to greet the man she loved.

She stood and walked over to where John Thatcher still sat in the stands, a huge smile on his face as he continued to listen to the commotion in honor of his son. She offered to take him down to the lists and he accepted, taking her arm as the walked down the stairs to the sandy grounds of the gaming arena.

"Father!" William rushed over to greet his father with Jocelyn following shortly. Phillipa went over to stand beside Kate by the wall. The women stood alone as the other men had started to put away the horse.

"He seems happy."

"He is." Kate replied with a smile. "Not only does he have his dream, he has his love and his father." The blacksmith looked at the other women for a second before turning her attention back towards the celebration. "You should talk to Geoff."

Phillipa sighed and replied "I know I should. But part of me doesn't want to."

"We all have to face the tough stuff sometime." She turned with a smile. "Now if you excuse me, I have to rub this in a certain count's bloody face."

Phillipa smiled and walked up to join her lady and the Prince who waited at the top of the stairs.

"Phillipa, wait." She turned around to see Geoff following her. She turned back to Anne and Edwards who just smiled and nodded their permission and just reminded her to meet back at the local tavern for the party the Prince-or Lord Corwell-had decided to throw in Sir William's honor.

"Geoff," she stated simply not quite looking in his eyes. "I'm sorry for misleading you earlier." She started wanting to get it out before she lost her courage to do so. "But it was necessary to keep my Lord's identity…"

"Phillipa, you don't need to apologize. After all you're not the only person who has withheld the truth between us. But I need to know something. The sentiments you expressed that night…were they Cat's or Phillipa's" She brought her head up.

"Both. See Cat could express them more easily but it was Phillipa who felt them the most." He smiled, and took her chin in his hand.

"Good to know." He leaned down and brought her up slightly so that their lips met briefly. "Are you going to be at the party?"

"Yes. You?"

"You think I would miss it?" He said with a wink. He took her hand and kissed it. "Lo, what a great thing is affection found" he whispered as he looked into her eyes. She smiled at the poetic expression.

"One of your writings?" He shrugged.

"Perhaps. I shall see you tonight." With that Geoff walked down the stairs to rejoin with his friends, only once looking back her direction. She started off to catch up with Anne and Edward when had reached them.

"Well, it's not exactly closure on that subject, but it is a start." With hope, she thought, that it was a start of something much more then just words.


End file.
